Johnny Carter is the kind of person who plays down his accomplishments. "Why would anyone be interested in me?" he asked, when a reporter wrote a story about his Dorothy Richardson Award for Resident Leadership in 2018. He questioned why someone could nominate him for such a thing.
But the answer to both questions is easy. He won the Dorothy Richardson Award for Resident Leadership, named for the pioneer of the community- development movement, because he helped organize his Mississippi community to fight for what they deserved, including proper sewer and water upkeep. And people are interested in him because his good humor and caring manner make them care, too. "I didn't know anyone was watching me," Carter says, standing outside his new home in Eastmoor Estates, just outside of Moorhead, Mississippi. "I thought I was just trying to make the neighborhood look good. I like the neighborhood to look good. You know on the news, where they show pictures of houses, and the streets looking so nice?" That's what he's always wanted for Eastmoor, he says.
When Carter first moved to Eastmoor, a subdivision comprised of Black residents, in 2003, he would drive around on his riding mower, mowing lawns that needed to be cut. At 68, he still mows a few, he says, but not as many as he used to. "I'm the second oldest man in the neighborhood," he says. (He knows enough of his neighbors to be able to make that claim.)
Carter once lived in a mobile home on the other side of Moorhead. "I wanted to be living by some people," he says, so he moved his mobile home to an empty lot in Eastmoor. He found good, friendly people, he says. he says. He also found unpaved roads and backed up sewers in the community, which had been converted into a low-income housing tax credit project in the 1990s. So Carter helped bring the people in his community together to form the Eastmoor Residents Association. They filed a lawsuit with the help of Desiree Hensley, a professor at University of Mississippi School of Law. 
Hope Credit Union, a NeighborWorks organization, has been working with the neighborhood for five years. When they first saw the community, before the lawsuit, the homes were in poor condition, says Phil Eide, senior vice president of Community and Economic Development at HOPE. He recalls leaky roofs and no hot running water. "You literally had to walk through sewage to get to your car."
When the residents won the lawsuit, they won ownership of their properties, which was exciting, Eide says. But the homes were in poor condition and residents didn't have the funds to repair them, which is where HOPE entered with funding from Goldman Sachs.
HOPE refurbished 44 properties. Eleven houses couldn't be saved, and HOPE applied for and received funds to replace them. The grants required that HOPE own the properties during the rehab, and then sell them back to the owners. If the residents stayed in their homes for 15 years, the lender would forgive the loans.
Carter received one of the new houses, a Katrina modular home with additions. It's "a green and white establishment" that he often compares to the Hilton. It has two bathrooms and two bedrooms, he says. And the plumbing works. He moved in this past July. This will be his first Christmas in his new home."Johnny's been one of the heroes and champions for the beginning," Eide says. "He knows everybody. He's well respected. When we needed to convince the community that we were legitimate, Johnny got them on our side."
Eide remembers attending meetings with the neighborhood association. The neighbors, he said, were so anxious to help each other, deciding whose home needed refurbishing first, putting themselves last. "That's the mindset of the folks there."
Eide says Carter is one of those community leaders whose names you don't always see. "He's not in front of the group making the announcements," says Eide. "But he's the glue that holds the neighborhood together. … He's out on Saturday morning picking up trash in the neighborhood and encouraging kids to do the same."
Carter says he couldn't be any more blessed than he is right now. "It's beautiful," he says of his new home. And the neighborhood, with a new playground, "is coming on to be a beautiful place. Our neighborhood – we could make a movie, the way they're going."
This fall, the county paved the road, which had been full of ruts and potholes. Now, Carter says, if there was an emergency and a sick person had to be transported somewhere, "they can ride smooth. We've got about the best street in Moorhead."
The neighborhood association is still in business, but with the pandemic, they're not meeting in person. Carter is a proud member of Hope Credit Union. He tries to tell younger people that they need to get their credit straight, he says. He hopes they listen.
There's still more to do for the neighborhood and for his own property, he says. "There's always more to do. But if you come down here, you'll see a nice neighborhood."
